1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to shared resource allocation and more particularly to reconfiguring virtual machines for optimized resource allocation and minimized energy waste.
2. Background Description
For any modern organization acquiring and managing Information Technology (IT) is a major budgetary concern. Moreover, the local IT hardware is seldom used at full capacity. So to reduce IT infrastructure costs and waste, instead of acquiring physical hardware, organizations increasingly are sharing resources by replacing some local computers with virtual machines (VMs). Each VM provides a local virtual desktop and runs on a remote physical server. Each desktop has allocated capacity (e.g. disk space, processing resources and memory) and is configured (software stack and licenses) for its intended purpose and expected needs. A key problem to managing these VM desktops is determining optimal capacity and configuration to allocate to each VM.
A typical state of the art service provider allocates/places physical resources for each VM based primarily on provider system optimization, on workload predictions and on results from continuously monitoring VM resource usage. Over-allocation, wastes resources and energy and reduces the capacity available to other users. Under-allocation impairs the users Quality-of-Service (QoS). Preferably, adequate IT resources are allocated without waste, and while also maintaining the desktop user's QoS.
System designers have investigated user/usage profiling and feedback in an effort to further optimize and improve service provider efficiency. User/usage profiles have been generated and used, for example, to deliver targeted content such as user targeted advertisements. Those user profiles have been categorized, for example, through analysis of web usage or mobile browser activity to infer demographic data. User feedback can include reporting software failures and performance degradation; expressing satisfaction with, and improve the quality of provided web content and advertisements; and involve them in the process of classifying emails for spam prevention.
Users can assist administrators in better defining initial desktop configurations and optimizing initial VM placement. For example, a resource management system may provide users with options that change system demands, e.g., to optimize energy consumption and systems energy efficiency. Once placed, however, the provider does not consider user feedback, even for subsequent attempts to consolidate system workload or optimize system resource allocation.
Thus, there is a need for allowing users to provide feedback with respect to a current desktop configuration and capacity, and for allowing users to indicate willingness to update the current desktop configuration for more efficient use of resource, by reducing the desktop capacity; and more particularly, there is a need for reconfiguring virtual desktops in response to such feedback, for example, consolidating the desktops onto fewer servers, thereby reducing IT costs, and further, understanding whether the current desktop configuration is appropriate for each user according to different respective usage profiles.